


Caught

by witchofblood



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Homestuck AU, M/M, Mermaids, Mermaidstuck, Mythology - Freeform, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3978214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchofblood/pseuds/witchofblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sollux Captor doesn't want to be here. He hates this beach, it's so boring, and it always was. Yet, here he was again, dragged along by his older brother who goes to University out here. He knows it's going to be a long, dull week.<br/>But there's something in the waters. Something he doesn't know about. And wouldn't believe.<br/>At least, he wouldn't believe it if he didn't see it with his own two eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Awake and Unafraid

We are in your stories, and legends. We date back thousands of years in your history, and in our's we date back even longer. We evolved beside you, in the very waters surrounding you, but you never truly knew of us. You crafted myths and fiction around us, taking us as inspiration. We were the basis for your gods and goddesses, lore and religions. You thought we came from one strain of DNA, but we knew. We knew we did. But our relation is found millenia back, from the moment the great land mass split, and that's where it ends.   
The Greeks called us Derketo's likeness. One Thousand and One Nights called us sea people. The Irish called us merrow. Western Europe called us melusine, while the Eastern half of the continent called us rusalkas. Hinduism recognizes us with Suvannamaccha. In Africa, there are myths of us, referring to us as Mami Wata. Endless writers and artists globally depicted us, giving us different names, but all across the world, we remain a symbol, for what you think is imagination and ingenuity. However, we know the truth.  
We are not fiction. We live beside you, but we have seen the hysteria you humans go through when you encounter differences. We have known that for centuries. It is in our writing, in our art, in our history. You either idolize us or demonize us. And we wish for neither if we are to be known. We too have language, and mathematics, and technology, like you, but in different forms you would not recognize. We are more like you than you think, despite us having entirely different DNA.   
What are we? Well, you probably know us as mermaids.  
And we are more terrifying, and more interesting, than you ever imagined.


	2. Ready to Leave, Ready to Live

The stars were not out tonight as they normally were. Only the brightest could be seen in the sea, despite their being no major town or city nearby. All there was on the shore was that obnoxious lighthouse. Good god, that lighthouse. Yes, it helped humans navigate, but at what cost? The stars hadn't been as bright since, not unless you swam out past the drop off. But there wasn't anywhere to perch there, lay back, and just watch the vast expanse that panned out above. It was like the ocean in that way, dark, mysterious, and yet captivatingly beautiful. Endless possibilities, and vast wonders. It could take you anywhere. It really was an ocean, an ocean of the sky. And you could never know what was in either until you stumbled upon it.  
Eridan's lips formed a thin line as that thought crossed his mind. How many things were out there that he didn't know about? How many myths and stories and fables played out, somewhere? And how many was he a part of to someone else? He looked towards the shoreline, as he sat there, on a rock near the cliff that the lighthouse was home to, and shook his head. He knew what that building was indicating. First, they build a lighthouse. Then, they start fishing more and more. They open restaurants, and tourist stops, and boardwalk parks, and more and more and more humans make their way out here. And then he would have to find another coast to hang out at. He would give it five, ten years at most, for this calm and quiet beach to become a party hub.  
For his calm and quiet beach to become a party hub.

He looked down at his tail, the fin of which was still resting in the water. It was violet, long, with two silky thin fins running down each side. And it wouldn't be that noticeable to people onshore in the dark, if it wasn't for his freckles. Bioluminescent. And all over him, down his tail, his torso, especially his shoulders, ear fins, and cheeks. It was silly to be focused on the freckles for too long, though, because one smile, and anyone could see those two rows of razor sharp teeth.  
But, thus was the life of merfolk. Nothing like the human stories he had heard. No, not one merfolk was going to give up their tail for legs, or their voice. No, merfolk aren't always pretty with long hair, and they don't look anything like a human. That's what confused him. Mythological creatures to them, yet they were supposed to resemble them? No. Nothing about them was similar. Not their skin tones, not their hands or fingers--he was certain humans didn't have webbed fingers or claws--not their habits or diet. Humans were weird.  
He looked back up at the sky, laying out across the rock, only to quickly grow annoyed with the constant light above his head. Sliding off his rock, he scanned for other places to lay. About forty yards away was a shore, even with the sea. That was risky, and the light would still bother him. Hmm. He pursed his lips as he floated, finally deciding to swim along the shoreline for a bit to get out of the vicinity of the lighthouse. It probably would take a while, and he would definitely have some explaining to do later, but he was fine with that.  
Anything to see the two oceans at once. The way they were meant to be seen.

* * *

 

This was absolutely pointless. Why did they even take these beach vacations? There weren't even any tourist places or any attractions at most of them. Just because his older brother went to a university up here, they always spent a week after he got out of school on the nearby beach. At least there was a lighthouse now, there was one sign there was some kind of intelligent life here. Maybe next year, there would actually be something fun to do.  
Sollux sighed, sitting on the hotel floor, with his laptop in front of him. Doing what? He wasn't quite sure yet. He could video call a friend, but they were probably all in bed at this point. Maybe play one of the games he already had downloaded? He couldn't download a new one; the wifi here sucked. He absentmindedly scrolled through the feeds of social media sites, getting bored with each one pretty quick. Great. This was day one in this hell, and he was already bored out of his mind.  
He shut his laptop, putting it in it's case, and zipping it up. It was pretty dark out there, he realized, and his brother wasn't back yet. He had promised his friend for a few shells, maybe he could take his flashlight and go look for some. At least it would waste time. He could probably get some creepy and cool pics of the landscape too.

The sand was warm, despite it being dark, and it quickly got in between his toes in his flip-flops. He had all week to look for cool shells, but he didn't know how many times he could roam around by himself like this. It was so quiet out here, he thought as he walked along the shoreline, snapping the occasional picture of the sky or of the waves. The place was deserted, he thought, the moment before he heard a splash.  
Or maybe not.

Sollux looked up over the water to see....something...swimming. A dolphin, maybe? It kept coming up and out and back down, over and over. What was that? He held up his camera quickly and snapped a couple rapid pictures, hoping to get one while it was above water. The flash went off and so did the shutter sound. Well, so much for quiet. What was it doing? It paused, and a....was that a head? seemed to look at him, and then quickly went under.  
There it goes, whatever it was. He sighed, looking at the pictures on his camera, realizing he had caught a few. He smirked, knowing he could definitely enhance these on his computer to figure out what he had seen. Either way, it was sure to be a more interesting vacation.


	3. Gettin Harder to Breathe

Eridan knew that sound. That was a camera. He cursed under his breath, glancing up at the shore. He was right. A human caught sight of him. This was bad. He quickly dived under the water, and swam out away from the shore. So much for seeing the stars. For a moment, he wished he was born a siren, like those Peixies girls. At least then he could get the person close enough to destroy the camera and to wipe the kid's memories. But with those abilities, he would be even more royal than he was now. And as a royal, if he was caught by a human, it would mean very bad things for his clan. A few feet under, and he removed the collar across his neck, that allowed him to breath above water. He was aware humans had something like this too, but they had a more advanced version. ....A snorkle, he thought was it's name? Humans are ridiculous. But they could be dangerous.  
He stopped as he got to the drop off, and looked down. It was an endless mass of darkness, and with his sight, he wouldn't be able to see all the way down. And he never had been able to. And he probably never would. He sighed, knowing he had another mile to swim before he got to home. Or at least, where home was this week.   
The water was warm tonight, warmer than usual. He dove down a few meters to stay cool, taking a deep breath. The water felt better on his gills down here. Easier to breath when it was cold. That's another thing he never understood. Humans always saw merfolk as tropical creatures. But they preferred temperate climates. He always preferred the cold though. It made him feel more awake, more alive.  
He couldn't tell anyone what had just happened, or he wouldn't feel very alive at all.   
He was a fool for being out there, near where they could see him. Good cod, his father would kill him if he knew. But he could lie, right? He could always just say it was uneventful, abandoned. That would keep him out of trouble. The human probably can't figure out what he caught on film anyways. Or at least, he hoped not. 

The wrecked ship that had recently become their home was a bigger space than they normally could find. Even as royalty, merfolk didn't tend to flaunt their wealth. There were so many groups that would want nothing more than to turn them into chum. Feed them to sharks, or somefin. He twisted open the door that led under the deck, and swam down, shutting it behind him. Before he could fully reach the bottom he heard that voice. UGH.  
"Shell, shell, look who finally decided to show up?" You could hear the smirk behind that line, and Eridan scowled. He entered the room, immediately feeling her piercing gaze on him. "Where did you swim off to?"  
He turned to look at her. Meenah Peixies. With a long fuchsia tail, and gold adornments, she was one annoying mermaid but she was also higher on the throne than him. And she knew exactly how to press his buttons. Cod, was it some kind of game to her? He wouldn't doubt it. She was lucky he liked her sister.   
"Mind your own business," he huffed, swimming off to his room, trying to ignore her snickering.   
Not even a minute after he had entered his room, and sat on a bunk, his brother decided to stand in the doorway.   
"Hey, bro," Cronus nodded. "You've been gone a while."  
"Only a few hours, tops." He countered. Cronus chuckled.   
"What do you even do out there, anyways?"  
"Nothing, really," Eridan sighed. "I just get bored in here."  
"Yeah, I'd rather be bored in here than dead out there, though." It was Eridan's turn to chuckle.  
"Is that concern I'm hearing?"  
"Shut up," Cronus rolled his eyes. "Who else is gonna plan our military strategy if you die?"  
"You?"   
"Nah," he shook his head. "I'm not about that life."  
The two brothers got along pretty well, but it was only because they had the same sense of humor. One-upping each other was their thing. It was all in good fun, they knew. They did care for one another, but they'd be damned if they let that be known.   
Eridan and Cronus were both considered princes. It was traditional for the eldest to head the military, but Cronus was always lousy at it. So, Eridan became the exception. This made who would get their father's throne a touchy subject, one they would both pretend to care about, but Eridan had doubts about the whole thing. He was content to be the general. It was the one thing he knew he was good at. But ruling? Eh. It didn't really appeal to him.   
The Peixies girls were a different story. Their mother was the Empress of the Sirens, the other half of the kingdom, and they both possessed qualities to rule. Meenah was a sure-in for the heritage, since she was almost a clone of that bitch. She was so obsessed with violence, with ruling with an iron fist and getting riches. At least Feferi cared about the people she'd be ruling. But there was no way her mother would give her the throne.   
It was rare for a siren to be so kind and caring. They had to go through a lot, from the moment they began to speak, it was known. Just having the voice made you nobility, and the highest class of the sirens took the throne. The higher the class, the better natural fighters they were. Being born a Peixies made you a threat to some, and made some jealous. The quickest way to get killed around here was to be open and honest about your abilities without any kind of protection or defense. And it was a miracle Fef had survived this long, because that was just the type of person she was. Open and honest about everything.  
He kinda saw himself as an opposite. He was closed off, and didn't like talking about himself very much. He wasn't shy, he just wasn't exposed. Not vulnerable. Vulnerability made you easy to defeat, and he couldn't let himself be defeated.   
The Empress had said once she was glad he was around to protect her daughter. Maybe that was why she said that.  
Because they clashed.


End file.
